The Spiral of Honesty
1. Honesty, noun. Integrity; truthfulness; sincerity.
Before we can learn to be truly honest with others, we must first learn to be honest with ourselves.
This is easier said than done, since the human capacity for self-deception knows no bounds.
2. Spiral, adjective. Circling around a center at a continuously increasing or decreasing distance.i>
Sometimes it can feel as though we are going round in circles.
But in truth we can never go round the same loop twice, just as we can never step in the same river twice.
With each turn of the wheel, something shifts - even if it is only our growing weariness at finding ourselves back here yet again, our yearning to break free of the cycle.
3. Honesty spiral, compound noun. The search for truth.
We pass by the same point again and again, and - if we open our eyes - each time we come to see it a little more clearly.
The truth that we approach, by little and little, as we make our way round the spiral is a truth beyond words.
As someone who lives and dies by words, I have found this hard to accept.
Perhaps this is also why there are times in life when the most honest thing we can give to another human being is our silence.
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Christine is a writer, thinker and changemaker based in Manchester. freelance researcher and writer. She is a fellow at the Next System Project, a trustee at Rethinking Economics, a commissioning editor at RENEWAL journal and co-author of People Get Read
